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DEVELOPMENTAL CRISIS IN EARLY ADULTHOOD: A ...

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5.8 Memos<br />

Memos were used throughout the empirical stages of this project to record<br />

analytical thoughts, insights, themes or relational patterns. The approach in the current<br />

study was to write most memos directly into a Word file on a computer, if the insight<br />

emerged with a computer close to hand (which it often did). A few others were<br />

written on scrap pieces of paper. A collection of memos made over the duration of<br />

the project is available in Appendix D. These serve as part of an “audit trail” for the<br />

reader to trace the logic or sequence of analytical developments as they occurred.<br />

5.9 Within-Case Analysis<br />

Analysis in all studies was firstly conducted on the level of each individual<br />

case. The aim of this within-case analysis was to develop person-specific themes,<br />

superordinate themes, key relational dimensions between themes, and also to develop<br />

an overall holistic analysis of the case as a totality. Each within-case analysis led to<br />

the creation of three case-specific documents:<br />

a) A list of themes and superordinate themes<br />

This document summarised and presented the list of themes and superordinate<br />

themes found in the transcript.<br />

b) A case summary<br />

This document provided a brief, accessible and concise holistic narrative<br />

summary of the case.<br />

c) A document linking themes to illustrative quotes for each participant<br />

This document provided a source of quotes that gave evidence of the theme’s<br />

basis and location in the interview data.<br />

For some particularly rich, complex or unusual cases, a within-case diagram<br />

was also created that visually summarised key relationships between analytical<br />

themes. An example of all these four within-case analysis documents for Gemma’s<br />

case from Study 1 is shown in Appendix F. Each of these documents had reciprocal<br />

influence on one another and evolved together.<br />

5.10 Between-Case Analysis<br />

After within-case analysis of individuals, cases were compared and contrasted<br />

to search for the themes, superordinate themes, processes and structures that applied<br />

for multiple cases. This was first done within gender-specific clusters of cases, then<br />

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